STD 100

05
Dec

Amédée prepared his trip around the world by cycling around Portugal this summer, with 3000km, 90km a day depending on the weather.

How did you choose the countries you’re going to visit ?
I chose them depending on the weather. Cold countries are not for me. I will begin with South America and Central America. Then I’d like to visit New-Zealand and meet some friends in Australia. Finally I dream of seeing Auroville in India, it’s a spiritual community that has been created about 50 years ago.

What is your everyday budget ?
About 30€ per day. In France that would be difficult but abroad I will be quite confortable. Usually, I like to have a good meal at noon and at night I just nibble on something before fixing my tent between the trees. For this trip, I sold my house, so I should be able to travel for a year and a half, maybe more.

Why the tent in the trees ?
When you go wild camping, you usually don’t find a nice flat spot. By fixing my tent between 2 trees, I’m sure I will have a good night’s sleep. And I tie my bike underneath.

How did you decide to go on a bike trip ?
Very sporty, I used to run. After an injury, I had to find another activity and began to cycle, especially with my MTB. I thought it might be a nice way to travel. Travelling alone will enable me to meet more people and be totally free with my schedule.

And you have chosen to travel with an Aevon trailer ?
After my trip to Portugal, I even changed my mind and chose the electric trailer ! So I left my KIT L80 to go with the STD 100 équiped with a 1000w motor. For me 90km a day is not enough. I’d like to make 150km a day.

17
Oct

Bertrand is in Colombia after 2 days by boat from Panama. With his bike and STD 100 trailer he tells us his first feelings about the country.

“The first days in Colombia are beautiful. I cycle in little valleys, green pastures, with small palm trees. The roads are easier to ride too, with trees along the way, so I get a little shade. There are little huts everywhere, people smiling, music in all the huts, fruit sellers all the way… There is a beautiful energy…”

Bertrand spends his first night at the fire station : the fire station only has one pick up, a hut with a kitchen and lavatories. They welcome all the kids from the neighbourhood.

On the first day, Bertrand meets Oscar, a baker on a motorbike who offers him some bread and some religious advice.
On the second day, he meets Juan from Bogota. He’s also by bike for one month and he travels to Medellin so they decide to cycle together. This is the beginning of the Columbian mountains.

The road runs along one of the main rivers of the country, the Rio Causa.”It weaves, goes up and down with the river and is lined with little green valleys where cows and horses graze peacefully… This road is so beautiful, I feel very lucky to enjoy it by bike…”

At Medellin, Bertrand is greeted by many of the locals and the last 40km are very slow as everyone wants to offer him a drink. Here, Bertrand will stay for a few weeks to catch up with his family coming from France. He will spend some time retracing Pablo Escobar’s footsteps.

His goal was to stay for a few days in Panama City to organise his passage to Colombia by boat.

An agency offered him a trip of 5 days with a detour by the San Blas islands for 550$, a little too expensive. Finally, Santiago, a Colombian offers a departure the next day in the afternoon. Bertrand has to leave early to get to Puerto Lindo

‘To save some time on the road, I try to shorten the trip. The idea is to cycle on the highway, it will shorten the trip by 20km. In many of these countries, a bike on the highway is not unusual.

At the toll booths, the guy doesn’t even lift his eye from his phone. A few kilometers after that, I cycle past a police station on the side of the road. No reaction.

A few kilometers later, a pick up overtakes me and an officer asks me to stop… The next exit is 25km away but he asks me to get out of the highway immediately. I really need to get to the next exit. He tells me to put my bike and my STD 100 trailer in the pick up. I enjoy 25km in an air-conditionned pick up before getting back on the road under a rain that won’t leave me until I reach my destination…’

Bertrand passes by the sole WIFI post of the village, no message from Santiago, no news.
The end of day slowly arrives, he decides to go to the marina to explain his situation. The captain of the sailing boat ‘La Sangria’ accepts to take him on board.

‘I will work on the sailing boat until we reach Cartagena. The boat leaves early in the morning after a night of heavy rains, winds and thunderstorms that were raging a few days ago above the islands of Saint Martin, Saint Barth & Barbuda…’

Bertrand spends 3 days sailing between the San Blas islands with a few stops along the way to admire the landscape. On his way, he see Santiago’s boat a little farther up…
At Cartagena, it’s the day of the pope’s visit. The captain offers Bertrand to sleep on the boat as long as he needs as he’s not planning to leave until October 18th.

06
Oct

Here is the next episode of Bertrand’s adventures with his bike and STD 100 trailer in Panama.

For his first night in Tolé, Panama, no firehouse and no Red Cross for Bertrand to stay so he chose the option : ‘church’. The house of the priest is a kind of camp where you can also find a school, a canteen and a few buildings. Bertrand shares his dormitory with three other people. These people haven’t got the means for a place to stay and some of them are stick. That night, Bertrand slept with a father and his son :

‘The father had an hernia operation a month ago. They still haven’t got back hom because Tolé is only 1 hour from the hospital whereas their house is much farther. The father isn’t well. I’m not a doctor but his situation is painful to see. His son is there to support and help him with everything : to get up, go the bathroom, eat… He spends all his time in bed. This father really loved me.‘

In Panama, like many countries, there is no social security.

Bertrand puts his alarm clock at 5.45am each morning to get on his bike as soon as possible. So for his first morning in Panama, he was running 1h late… due to the time difference.

After a few kilometers, he met Cyril, a French guy from the South of France, who’s been travelling by bike for 2 years and has cycled for 50000km. On this road, he meets many other bike travellers, one of which is Marc, an English guy who’s going from Ushuaïa to Alaska.

The first two days by bike are hard with a temperature of 40°C and dense traffice near Panama City. The outskirts of big cities are always complicated by bike, whatever the country.

In Panama City, Bertrand is currently looking for a boat to go from Panama to Colombia. We’ll find him soon in South America.

‘My bike trailer is amazing. Easy to ride, very steady when going downhill at full speed. My stuff is easy to load and stays dry thanks to the waterproof bag. It goes anywhere and people are surprised. The shock absorber‘s pressure is adjustable to any types of roads, it’s really useful.’

03
Oct

Bertrand is travelling by bike and Aevon trailer in central America. His last message was written between Costa Rica and Panama.

Bertrand spent the month of July at Playa Hermosa (Costa Rica) enjoying surfing, in a little hut 50m from the beach. At the end of July, some friends joined him for a few weeks. Bertrand left his bike and Aevon trailer at Playa Hermosa to enjoy the time spent with his friends, as travelling by bike would take longer.

They went to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica :

‘We spent some time with our flip-flops in the national park of Cahuita, then walked to the Arenal volcano to enjoy the warm and cold rivers and biggest lake of the country (which is artifical and located at the foot of 2 volcanos), and replaced our flip flops for something a little more waterproof in the national parc of Nuboso. We put back our flip flops at the end of these 3 weeks on the Pacific coast for some surfing and a few beers…‘

After 2 months without cycling, Bertrand took off again to cross the border between Central America and South America. The next surfing stop is planned for December in Ecuador.

‘The plan is to join the Caribbean coast of Panama, at Panama city, to find a boat going to Colombia. Going from Panama to Colombia is possible by air or by sea. The famous PanAmericana (road that goes from North America to South America) stops here, in an area called the Darien. The Darien is a dense jungle full of mosquitoes, snakes, crocodiles and other nice animals…’

Bertrand crossed the frontier to Panama after a 30mn customs control :

‘The customs officer took a look at my stuff (he got closer, bent to watch inside my bags and bent backwards, all in 2 seconds) and asked me what I was carrying in my bike trailer. I answered with a big smile (they know what I’m carrying on a bike trip) : camping stuff, a tent, some clothes… The idea crossed my mind that I should say I was carrying drugs but seeing his attitude, the size of his best friend attached to his belt and the position of the cap on his head, I admit I decided against it…’

The roads were under construction, some of them were closed to cars, ideal for Bertrand and his bike.

Bertrand in Latin America

Bertrand makes us laugh each month with the details of his bike adventures. He also chose the bike trailer STD 100 to have enough space for his stuff.
He decided to go from Mexico to Ushuaïa taking his time to discover each country. We will follow him until 2018.

Raid Planète Secours, the book

Raid Planète Secours was the project of 2 young firemen who taught first aid to pupils they met along the way, in a partnership with the Red Cross. 4 years later, they tell us all about this trip with nice drawings and lots of pictures in their book that you can order directly online.

The trip Retrouvailles

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Elodie and Cyril have started on their world tour with New-Zealand this winter. Now they are in Australia. You can follow all their adventures on their website with their trailer KIT L80.
Their goal is to come back to essential things and get rid of all that’s not necessary.

An article will soon be published in the magazine Carnets d’Aventures about one of our ‘globe-trotters’.

We will also follow Elisa and Valentin’s trip in Scotland with their UNO 100.

07
Jul

Bertrand sent us some news from Nicaragua where he spent some weeks at playa Popoyo Guasacate.

There he met very nice and positive people and found beautiful surfing spots. A life barefoot without any stress where time gets a new dimension.

With his brother, Bertrand went to the island of Omotepe located on the Cocibolca lake, the third biggest lake in Latin America after Titicaca. Then they went to the Maderas volcano, 1394m high, for a nice hike under the rain with a Dutch man they met there.

Bertrand then took the road again with his bike and Aevon trailer STD 100 to reach Playa Hermosa. After several weeks with no cycling, the first few days were a little hard on the legs and he met many cyclists on the way, mostly with carbon bikes.
When he found the ocean again, he made this beautiful pic :

“I come from a tiny place, where everyday a pickup truck full of vegetables and fruits, passes through to supply the inhabitants to a small village, full of tourists with big cars, where all places to sleep or eat are quite expensive. But the wave is good here and you can always find something cheap.”

The Aevon STD 100 trailer is still a pleasure and is now decorated with the flag from Vendée (France) !

27
Jun

After travelling through the Andes by bike in 2015, Christophe found a new challenge : cycling from Bordeaux to Chamonix by bike and Aevon trailer and then climbing the Mont Blanc (by foot !)

In 2015, Christophe cycled for 4 months, already in the company of his STD 100 bike trailer. From Chili, he went down to Ushuaïa and then back up to Buenos Aires in Argentina. That was a perfect test for his bike and trailer, using MTB tracks and climbing very high.

The bike is a way to travel differently. According to Christophe : “cycling is an excellent way to immerse yourself in the local atmostphere.”

During this trip, there were nights in the open, lots of nice encounters and loads of effort ! Christophe and his cycling partner pedalled for 35h24, 725km and 7632m of positive difference in level. They crossed 7 different French departments.

In this Aevon trailer, you could find camping stuff : a tent, a camping stove, cooking utensils and all the essentials for a one-week trip. The STD 100 trailer was the unavoidable means of transport for this trip as : “not only is it practical, non traumatic for the bike but it also helps meeting people because it’s original and elegant“.

The STD 100 trailer can carry up to 45kg of material, perfect for two travellers. Its shock absorber makes the trip much more confortable, a real asset for long trips.

After resting for two days at their arrival at Chamonix, Christophe started to climb the Mont Blanc with a guide. Unfortunately, the trip had to stop earlier as two mountain-climber fell sick during the climb.

But no regrets for this amazing adventure that you will hear about shortly in the famous magazine Carnets d’Aventure !

14
Mar

Ronan, Ewen and Aurel have decided to go on a trip along the West African coast with their bikes and Aevon trailers STD 100 to find the best surfing spots.

With their fat-bikes and their bike trailers fully loaded, each kilometer is a challenge and the maximum speed is 9km/h. In total, they have cycled for 850km along the African beaches and through the jungle with 210kg material (70kg each) to offer you the pleasure of their web series Lost in the Swell that will make you laugh and plan your next adventure very soon. A bike trip in extreme conditions with one goal : THE wave !

Their goal : find a spot, a wave that has never been surfed before, for example : “Bambi’s left” :

‘Bambi’s left is located at 5880km from Paris, 500km from Libreville airport and 58km from Mayumba which is the last village at the South of the country. To cross these 58km and reach our first wave, we needed 3 days and 3 nights. And it was hard to reach ! Our camp was located at the end of the bay, just in front of the wave. Many sitatungas (antelopes) came to dring in the lagoon close to our tents. One of them, less shy, seemed used to the cameras. We guess it was retired Bambi and decided to name this wave Bambi’s left.’

The film for their trip ‘Paradise Lost‘ is currently being shot in many French cinemas where you can meet the 3 men :

07
Feb

Marine and Loïs cycled accross the ‘traversée de l’Hérault’ last summer with their Aevon trailer STD 100.

300km of mountain biking in full nature with 7000m difference in height. Departure : Montpellier. Arrival : La Salvetat-sur-Agout, little village in the South of France, located at 1 087m at its highest.

“Our bike trailer helped us carry all our luggage, our tent and camping stove during the trip.
We cycled on little roads, but mainly paths and single tracks.
The behaviour of the trailer offroad is very good, thanks to the hitch on the seat post and the shock absorber. The only limits were our legs uphill and our brakes downhill. Wherever the MTB goes, the bike trailer follows and we didn’t spare it anything : hills, flooded passages and technicals slopes.

We could carry 25kg of luggage easily.”
The Aevon brand was designed by a mountain biker, he designed it in order to cycle accross difficult passages : aluminium frame, adjustable shock absorber, hitch on the seat post.

“Our next purchase for our future trips will be an Aevon specific waterproof bag.

We recommend this trailer to those who are looking for a reliable product.”

This track is maintained by the Hérault department with many B&Bs along the way for cyclists and hikers.